This invention relates to a system for magnifying printed materials. More particularly, this invention relates to a system in which printed material for documents is digitized and processed by a microprocessor, and then displayed for viewing.
Persons with poor eyesight often have difficulty reading printed material such as books and magazines. Other types of printed material such as labels from food products also present difficulties to low vision patients.
Devices which can be used to magnify printed material would be useful to assist low vision patients in reading printed documents. Devices presently existing for magnifying printed materials include optical magnifiers, closed-circuit television (CCTV) magnifiers, and computer magnifiers used together with optical character recognition devices. However, these devices may have several disadvantages. For example, optical magnifiers induce postural tension and fatigue due to short viewing distances. CCTV magnifiers require extensive, accurate and constant manipulation of a document being viewed. Optical character recognition devices are very slow and error-prone, and do not provide adequate processing capability to present graphics symbols.
In addition, the software also provides such factors as "visors" to conceal all but the line presently in view. In view of the foregoing, it is an objective of this invention to provide a system which magnifies printed material with improved ergonomics.
It is another objective of this invention to provide a system which can present text and graphics, and can recognize page format.